Where do you run to, so far away?
by Strawberry Rendezvous
Summary: He becomes somber when he notices Derek's expression. It's his "I told you so" face. "Stiles." It's amazing how condescending Derek can sound with just one word.


**A/N: This is located sometime in the indeterminate future. They're all in one happy pack, and everything is normal and they're all domesticated and shit. Lets say Gerard is dead, just because that's how I would like it to be. Also note that this is the first time in a very long time that I've written a story (mostly) in present tense **_**and**_** it's un-beta'd, so bear with me.**

Stiles finds it on accident, he swears. He's flipping through the bestiary, which he'd managed to print out at some point, when he comes across a creature that there's a _ton_ of information on. Like pages and pages and pages on just one thing. He soaks everything up, and then turns to the Internet for more. The first link that pops up is, of course, Wikipedia.

_In Greek mythology_, it read, _the __**Gorgon**__ (plural: __**Gorgons**__) (Greek: Γοργών or Γοργώ __Gorgon__/__Gorgo__) was a terrifying female creature. The name derives from the Greek word __**gorgós**__, which means "dreadful."_ Stiles keeps reading. Eventually he checks the time and see that it's 2:33 AM. Derek would be hopping through the window any second, so he closes his laptop and turns the chair around, just in time to see the werewolf jump onto his bed.

"How'd it go?" Derek shrugs.

"Same old."

"Still not safe enough for me to come with?"

"Definitely not." Stiles sighs. He'd been trying to convince Derek to let him in on the pack's training sessions for ages, but the wolf wouldn't budge on the issue. Stiles supposes it's for his own good, even if it is really, really annoying.

"So then why are you here?" Derek flinches infinitesimally and looks down, sliding the mask he uses to hide his emotions back on. Stiles didn't mean to sound as irritated as he is, but it was pretty fucking infuriating to stay up until the wee hours of the morning waiting for Derek, only to be told that nothing exciting had happened and he still wasn't allowed to hang out with the pack all the time.

"I just thought you might want to be kept up to date. I won't come by next time."

"Derek-" But the other man was already out the window, landing in front of the house with a soft _thump_. "That's not what I meant." Stiles groans, thumping his head on his desk. Werewolves could be so temperamental.

The next morning Stiles doesn't have time to read more about Gorgons, as Scott bursts through his door at seven, declaring that they have to go for a run.

"Dude, I just fell asleep, freaking Derek-"

"What did Derek do?"

"It's more like what Derek _wouldn't_ do, which is let me hang out with you guys." Scott rolls his eyes.

"This again? Once we all have better control, he won't care. We're working on it."

"Sure, sure." Scott has been a werewolf for _ages_, and he still has awful control over himself when he fights. He likes to talk about how he can beat Isaac and Erica, but that's not saying much, really. "So why are we going for a run? It's not like you can get out of shape, and god knows coach'll be having me run enough suicides to get back in shape once school starts again."

"I just need to work out, relieve some tension. Fighting Isaac doesn't really do it for me." Stiles snorts at the euphemism.

"Why don't you go burn off some steam with Allison?" Scott frowns. "Whoa, buddy, don't look _too_ happy there."

"She wants to be… celibate. For at least a week. Maybe two." He looks pained.

"Hey, man, it could be worse." Scott raises an eyebrow. "You could be me." Scott laughs in agreement.

"Yeah, you're right. It could be worse."

After their run, Stiles is exhausted, like wiped out beyond anything he's ever known before. Because when Stiles goes for a run, it's more like going for a jog, but apparently when Scott goes for a run, it's more of "how fast can I make a mile?" He takes a long, hot shower and then falls on his bed. Which is occupied. Sort of.

"What were you looking at before I came in last night?" Stiles pushes at Derek to get off his bed, but the older man doesn't move.

"Hrmmph."

"Stiles."

"It was just something I found in the bestiary. Gorgons. Interesting, slightly freaky, I kinda hoped they weren't real."

"Read anything particularly interesting?"

"No. Should I have?"

"Nope." Then there's silence. Stiles tries to roll over but finds that Derek still hasn't left.

"What?"

"Just… be careful with your research." And then a weight's lifted off the bed and Stiles has it all to himself. Despite his curiosity, he drifts off to sleep within minutes.

When Stiles wakes up, it's mid-afternoon and he has that awful disorientation he gets from napping in the middle of the day. He stretches his back out before dragging himself over to his desk and opening his computer. The webpage is still up, so he keeps scrolling, more intent on finding answers than he was before. What was Derek scared of him finding?

Near the bottom of the page, Stiles thinks he's found his answer. _In Greek mythology, blood taken from the right side of a Gorgon could bring the dead back to life, yet blood taken from the left side was an instantly fatal poison. __Athena__ gave a vial of the healing blood to __Asclepius__, which ultimately brought about his demise._ What does Derek think he's gonna do, try to bring someone back to life? It's not like he has anyone-

But he does have someone he could bring back to life. Sure, it would freak his dad out, but having his mom back would be the best thing to ever happen to Stiles, and that includes the time Lydia kissed him when she was pissed at Jackson.

He hasn't admitted it to anyone in a long time, not even himself, but there's very little he wouldn't give up to have his mom back. She was his _world_, and then she was gone. And his dad tried really hard to explain everything to him, tried to be there for him, but sometimes it just wasn't enough. His dad is amazing, but sometimes he just needs his mom.

And if the monster's real- Derek basically confirmed it, and it was in the bestiary- then the myth could be true, too. Right?

He does some more research. First, he closes and locks the window and his door so that he won't get any surprise visitors. Scott wouldn't care or even know what was going on, but Derek would start to get suspicious if he saw what Stiles was looking up. Once he's secure, he starts looking. He feels like a total dork, looking up legends and real-life sightings, but that's nothing new.

Eventually, he finds something. It's an island off the coast of Seattle. Like, way, way off the coast. But he's been meaning to go up and see the University of Washington anyways, so what's the harm in stopping somewhere else along the way? He plans to talk to his dad about getting a plane ticket, and he can use the money that was supposed to be for the Jeep to rent a boat or something. When he heads out of the house to pick up some stuff from the grocery store, there's an extra excited spring in his step.

When Stiles gets home and finds Derek in his room, his excitement levels rise even more. _This is what happens when I take the right amount of Adderall_, he thinks. Then, _Ugh, normal emotions suck, why am I excited to see Derek? _He becomes somber when he notices Derek's expression. It's his "I told you so" face.

"Stiles." It's amazing how condescending Derek can sound with just one word.

"Derek."

"What did I tell you about your research?"

"To be careful."

"And why are you planning a trip to Seattle?"

"To visit schools…"

"Dammit Stiles, I can hear you lying!" And Stiles is surprised, because he's seen Derek angry, but he's rarely seen him so openly upset.

"It was just for research purposes!" He hedges.

"I can hear your heart, _stop lying to me_."

"It's none of your business, okay? I'm glad that you protect us, really, I am, but some things you need to let people figure out on their own." Derek shakes his head.

"Not this. Don't try to leave, I'll be watching you." And then he's gone.

After a week of silence, of not going to _any_ pack meetings, even the ones he's allowed to, Stiles shows up at Derek's apartment. He brings food as a peace offering, enough to last a week, even for a wolf. The door's unlocked so he staggers in and drops everything in the living room in front of Derek, who's sitting on the couch.

"I'm sorry. You were right, I was wrong, blah blah blah."

"I know." Stiles sits down next to Derek, close enough to comfortably hold a conversation but so that no parts of their body are touching. Derek makes a face at him but resigns himself to the younger boy's company.

"I just… hoped, y'know?" Stiles looked up at Derek, hoping to catch his eyes. The older man sighs before looking away from Stiles.

"I tried to find one, once. After Kate killed my family I had a really hard time, and I looked for any way out."

"Are you saying-"

"Shut up, Stiles. I'm only going to tell this story once." Stiles snaps his mouth closed. "You know how the myth goes? Blood from the right side of the body brings people back to life; blood from the left… does the opposite. I figured that even if the first part didn't work, the second would." Derek paused.

"And?"

"I never found it. Laura convinced me to stop looking, keep my head down and finish high school." Stiles can tell story-time is over.

"It would've been weird anyways. She would've been, like, a skeleton, and I wouldn't have been able to explain it to my dad or anyone else so we would've had to keep her a secret, and it probably would've ended up like the Resurrection Stone in Harry Potter where she wouldn't have even-"

"Stiles." Stiles shuts up. "It's okay to miss her, you know." And Derek, Derek Hale is talking about feelings. Stiles pinches himself to make sure he's fully conscious, and ow, yeah, he's definitely awake.

"Yeah, I know."

"But she's not coming back." He says it with a heartbreaking authority. "Even if you found the Gorgon, got the blood from the right side and somehow made it out alive, you couldn't bring her back. None of the logistics would be right, and she wouldn't be happy. And your dad's probably just gotten over her, if he has. Bringing her back and having her die a second time, it wouldn't be worth it. Trust me, I've had a lot of time to think about this." It's the most Stiles has heard him say in one go.

"Okay." He's speechless for once. He could ramble, but he has no idea what to say. Derek seems to see that, so after a rather pained and dramatic sigh, he pulls Stiles in and wraps an arm around him. Stiles tenses, but relaxes into the embrace and lets himself be held for the first time in a long time, hugs from the sheriff notwithstanding.

Everything returns to its boring normalness after that. Allison and Scott get back to doing it like dogs in heat, pun intended, while Jackson, Danny and Lydia continue to play an awkward game of cat and mouse that will probably eventually result in a threesome. Isaac is taking summer classes, and Erica is on some trip, so Stiles finds himself spending a fair amount of time on Derek's couch.

When it turned into spending time on Derek's couch _under_ Derek, he's not quite sure. He supposes it was a little less than a week after the whole Gorgon thing, on one of the days where it was just the two of them, but the smell of arousal permeated the air long after Scott and Allison's departure. If he really strains his memory, he can recall their very first kiss. It's difficult to remember because there have been so many since then, all of them unique in their own way.

They'd been watching Beverly Hills Cop and Derek looked ridiculously bored, so Stiles had decided to tickle-attack him. The attack had been rather unsuccessful, which had led to Derek pinning him on the floor, which had led to Derek straddling his lap and jerking Stiles' head up to his own. After that it's a blur of making out everywhere in Derek's apartment- against walls, in the kitchen, in the bedroom, sometimes even the bathroom, though their favorite place is the couch.

They talk sometimes, too, usually after one of them has had a nightmare about the things that have happened since Peter began attacking, and was killed, and the subsequent reactions to his actions. Or if Stiles remembers something about his mom, and the only person he can think to tell, the only person who really understands, is Derek. Talking about that stuff isn't easy for either of them, but they're getting there.

They're not official and it's not perfect, and Stiles isn't sure what he's going to do when school starts in the fall, but he's got time to figure it out. And he has Derek, which is more than enough for him.


End file.
